Support thread for parents of chilldren sitting the transfer test in 2011

Down_mum

I have been reading this thread with fascination as was originally looking for views on local grammar schools before signing the form - I had no idea the scores themselves generated so much conversation. I can understand it would be nice to know how they performed compared to practice, but is a numerical score any different to a B1, B2 etc if the child is borderline against the schools criteria -as long as the grammars apply it fairly?
!Surely if 100 represents the average score that would say the majority will be bunched together? !The information leaflet says "..tests measure the performance of children against the average for the population of children from the same age range. My ds got 117 and has an August b'day, I don't think this means his raw score is the same as another child with 117 and an April birthday, it's just where he sat compared to the other "older" children in the year. !I'm really keen to understand how this works now as my dd will sit aqe this yr & she is already comparing herself to ds.

dee1000

Hello

I am very late with my DD's results its taken me a few weeks to recover from the stress of it all
Anyway she got an A in GL and 99 in AQE. I am very proud of her and the all hard work was eventually worth it.
She has decdied to apply to the local grammar school (AQE) much to her principals surprise I thought he was going to fall off his chair when i told him.
Just another waiting game now :eek:

Best wishes to all I hope all the kids get to their choice of school.

Dee x

flymetothemoon_2

Hello there Dee

It's good to hear that your DD has done so well - congratulations to you both! :T :T

Hope that principal has picked himself up from the floor !

I think you're quite right to choose the school that you and your DD want rather than bowing to pressure from anyone to do otherwise.

Best of luck - hope it all works out.

RikM

I enquired about raw scores and got the following reply:

Good morning,

Unfortunatley we do not give out raw scores. However, due to demand if you write into our Office formally (i.e by way of letter via post) under The Data Protection Act (1998), we will look into this matter further for you. As your son sat the Common Entrance Assessment last year it will take longer for the Office to look into this, so please bear this in mind.

Regards,
AQE

flymetothemoon_2

Just off out to post my letter to AQE asking for my DDs raw scores from 2010 tests (same year as you Rik M - I think).

I have also asked them to confirm the highest score obtained last year and the maximum achievable score (which, according to the Belfast Telegraph, were 127 and 145 respectively).

I'll post the response here if/when I get it.

m40

Can anyone help.
I filled in my daughters transfer form and returned to school
before the mid term break. I am now regretting the choices made. Is it possible to change choices at this stage.
My dilema was the school I really wanted my daughter to go to only accepts A's and B1's and rarely B2's. I am now thinking I should have tried anyway. My daughters result was a B2. Score 228.

3Mum

M40
BELB booklet says

" CHANGE OF PREFERENCE
No changes of preference will be processed by ELB’s, apart from those necessitated by exceptional circumstances (eg change of address which necessitates a change of preference – verification of Exceptional Circumstances will be required), between Thursday 8 March and Monday 28 May 2012 (inclusive). The parent/guardian should be aware that after 28 May 2012 a number of schools will have allocated all their places and can only give consideration to a change of preference in the event that a place becomes available.
It is important that the parent/guardian give very careful consideration to the stated order of their preferences and indicate any changes to the ELB by Wednesday 7 March 2012."

So it would seem you can change up to 7th March - I'm sure this applies to all boards. Worth a try!

flymetothemoon_2

m40

If I were you I would speak to the Head of your Primary School 1st thing tomorrow morning and ask is it possible to make a change. He/she may direct you to the Education & Library Board for your area as it is that Board which will now have all the transfer forms for the Board area and will be about to distribute them to 1st choice schools, so don't delay.

I agree with the many comments on this forum that parents should list the schools in order of their choice regardlesss as to whether they think their child's score is enough because cut-offs change every year and you may find out in May that a B2 was enough for the school you really wanted so you should try for it if the Board allows you to change your choices. Good luck.

RikM

flymetothemoon wrote: »

Just off out to post my letter to AQE asking for my DDs raw scores from 2010 tests (same year as you Rik M - I think).

I have also asked them to confirm the highest score obtained last year and the maximum achievable score (which, according to the Belfast Telegraph, were 127 and 145 respectively).

I'll post the response here if/when I get it.

I got my response this morning.
Just a brief, handwritten, note; it gave the score from each assessment, but no other information (maximum possible score, for example!).

Luckily, the "out of" scores were posted here previously, or I'd be contacting them again. So assuming the top score of 64 also applied in my son's intake...
His score average over 2 assessments was 59 (or 92%), and for a February birth in the 2011 intake (test taken in 2010), that gave an AQE mark of 118.

The raw scores were about mid-range for his performance in practice tests, so no surprises there.

flymetothemoon_2

Got a hand written letter from Mr Young/AQE a few days ago (less than a week after writing to him). He gave me my DDs 3 raw scores from the 2010 tests. He didn't confirm the maximum achievable score or the highest score obtained. I suspect AQE will never want to do this as the highest achievable score probably differs according to months of birth!

However, the average of DDs best 2 scores works out at 72% and her AQE score was 96 - birthday is end August. Overall, her practice tests were mostly high 70s so 96 was a bit lower than we expected for her. Whilst we had not expected a very high score, we had expected 100 or more, given that 100 is the average and that she had always performed very well throughout primary and was always above average in a very high achieving class (22 out of 28 kids sat the AQE and all 22 got into grammars) so I can't help feeling that the age standardisation process may have worked against her. Perhaps if her birthday had been in Oct, the same tests results may have translated into an AQE score of 100 or more? Who knows? I think the more people that post this kind of info on here the better chance we might all have of understanding how the standardisation has worked. My next child is a younger one so I wouldn't mind being able to figure this out!